The new school year will start in a week and a half. As of September, all secondary schools will have compulsory national defense training, which the Youth Guard Center will implement over two years. Social studies and history will now be taught separately - they will no longer be one subject.
Those taking the national exams at the end of this school year should note that they must obtain at least 15% at the secondary school level and 20% at the high school level to pass.
In the new school year, pupils should also be able to opt out of Russian as a second foreign language and instead learn a language of the European Union.
One of the most important changes is that the transition to Latvian-language education will continue, and from the new school year not only grades 1, 4 and 7, but also grades 2, 5 and 8 will be taught in the state language only.
However, some pupils also have difficulties at this stage, as confirmed by Tetele Primary School. The principal, Iluta Aleksīna, worries pupils will have forgotten Latvian in the summer.
"It is, of course, challenging that they go away for the summer holidays and the spoken language in the household is still more or less Russian. At school, they often speak Russian when they talk to each other, but of course, the learning process is in Latvian," says Aleksīna.
The assessment arrangements will also change. There will be two types of assessment - daily or formative assessment and end-of-learning or summative assessment.
There will also be no possibility to rewrite test papers but to improve grades by taking a combined test at the end of the school year.
Biruta Vizule, Director of the Vocational and General Education Programme in Balvi, commented on the changed assessment reform that she would like to see more clarity and stability in the education system.
"The fact that they will not be able to correct [a mark], I think it is normal because in reality you have to study systematically and every day. However, there are other nuances that will make this assessment process more complex to understand. There will also be tests of different meanings, including summative tests. I think it will also be complicated," said Vizule.
